Tuesday, January 19, 2010

I wonder if any of the people accusing us of 'occupying' Haiti

have actually volunteered to take over the duties. Has France formally demanded to take over air traffic control duties, for instance? Has the UN- well, hell, I really don't care much about the UN.During a visit to Haiti on Sunday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon conceded that international search-and-rescue teams needed to be "more balanced" in looking for victims of all nationalities and not just their own. He also suggested too few teams had been sent—even though on Friday, the U.N. had appealed to nations not to send any more rescue squads.

On Monday, he asked the U.N. Security Council to authorize 2,000 more peacekeepers and 1,500 more U.N. police for Haiti. "The heartbreaking scenes I saw yesterday [in Haiti] compel us to act quickly," Mr. Ban said. "I saw mass destruction and mass need."Let's review: we're being told about the wonderful UN system to 'organize' relief; from an organization that didn't even get people on the scene in Aceh(as I recall) for more than a week, and then their first concerns were getting hotel rooms and catering for the teams that would show up to 'evaluate and prepare response plans'. Us, the Aussies and Japan had people on the ground within, what less than 48 hours? And a big effort underway before the UN clowns even arrived. But we're supposed to consider what's going on as organized as it is primarily because of the UN? Uh huh.

Let's see, Haiti is a third-world craphole that had a Presidential Palace but no real disaster setup of its own before the quake hit. Severe damage to the port(so you can't move stuff in by ship as fast), only one runway operating, severe damage to roads and bridges, most of the roads were crap in the first place... It doesn't matter who's in charge, getting this mess organized(as much as can) and relief getting out is going to take time. And that means people are going to suffer, some are going to die before help gets to them. Which sucks. If you know of any way to make it work better, please pass it on to the people working on this; they'd love to hear it.

I tend to whack on the UN a lot. Be it said, there are a lot of people in that organization who really do want to help others; they seem to be far outnumbered, at least in the control levels, by people who want to take over. The world, preferably, they think will be better off with someone like themselves running it. The level of corruption could make politicians in Chicago envious, the inefficiency is incredible, and the scapegoating is disgusting. Being an honest guy at the UN has to be like being an honest cop in New Orleans: hard as hell to keep going and stay straight.

By the way, a guy over at Insty wrote him and had this:I read the other day that Bill Clinton arrived in a 757, and that Hilary’s arrival crowded out an aid plane.Wouldn't surprise me at all. High-ranking politicians and hangers-on have a bad habit of thinking everything else should stop while Their Highnesses fly in or whatever; think of being the ATC in the tower having to clear traffic for some idiot like this to land(I can imagine some colonel saying something like "Lieutenant, I don't like it either, now carry out the damned order!") when the flights you have to divert have relief supplies or rescue workers and such; be frustrating as hell. Politicians flying in should find a place on one of the aid flights, or if they can't do that come in by the least disruptive method possible. Of course, if they did that they wouldn't be on their private 737 or whatever, and then how would people know how important they are?

E-mail me

at elmtreeforge at att point net

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences. - C.S. Lewis

Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave. - Capt. Mal

A Rifleman’s Prayer:Oh Lord, I would live my life in freedom, peace and happiness, enjoying the simple pleasures of hearth and home. I would die an old, old man in my own bed, preferably of sexual overexertion.

But if that is not to be, Lord, if monsters such as this should find their way to my little corner of the world on my watch, then help me to sweep those bastards from the ramparts, because doing that is good, and right, and just.

And if in this I should fall, let me be found atop a pile of brass, behind the wall I made of their corpses. Geek with a .45

"He's Black Council,", I said.

"Or maybe stupid," Ebenezar countered.

I thought about it. "Not sure which is scarier."

Ebenezar blinked at me, then snorted. "Stupid, Hoss. Every time. Only so many blackhearted villains in the world, and they only get uppity on occasion. Stupid's everywhere, every day." Ebenezar McCoy

“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition” ― Rudyard Kipling

This deprecation of individual freedom was objectionable to me. I am convinced now, as I was then, that man is an end because he is a child of God. Man is not made for the state; the state is made for man. To deprive man of freedom is to relegate him to the status of a thing, rather than elevate him to the status of a person. Man must never be treated as means to the end of the state; but always as an end within himself." Dr. M.L. King Jr.